Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

Feb 25 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Wednesday:

** Hewlett-Packard Co is in talks to buy wifi network gear maker Aruba Networks Inc and a deal may be announced as soon as next week, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

** Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Co said it has agreed to form two real estate joint ventures that would cut its debt by about C$1.1 billion ($885.6 million) and pave the way for an initial public offering or alternate transaction.

** Bankrupt RadioShack Corp will slow the process of selling its surviving stores, while GameStop Corp has expressed interest in some of its 1,100 locations that are being closed this month, a lawyer for the electronics retailer told a judge on Wednesday.

** Italy’s antitrust authority said it had not received any information about a non-binding offer for the book unit of RCS Mediagroup by fellow publisher Mondadori .

** French bank Société Générale said it would exercise its option to buy 50 percent of Antarius, an insurance company dedicated to the Crédit du Nord networks.

** The Italian government on Wednesday shut the door on a bid by a company controlled by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset to buy rival broadcaster RAI’s transmission mast company for 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

** Private equity group Terra Firma is planning to launch the sale of its European cinema chain Odeon & UCI Group towards the end of the year in a potential 1 billion pound ($1.55 billion) deal, its chairman told Reuters.

** Cancer drugmaker Pharmacyclics Inc is exploring a possible sale of the company and has attracted interest from Johnson & Johnson and Novartis AG, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar the matter.

** General Maritime Corp, which operates crude oil tankers, will acquire Navig8 Crude Tankers Inc in a stock-for-stock deal, the two companies said.

** The Italian government has launched an accelerated bookbuilding process to place a 5.74 percent stake in state-controlled electricity group Enel, the Treasury said.

** SFX Entertainment Inc Chief Executive Robert Sillerman has offered to take the electronic dance music festival (EDM) promoter private, valuing the company at about $440 million.

** South Africa’s government has identified the non-core assets it will offload to raise 23 billion rand ($2 billion) for power utility Eskom and will have the entire amount by year-end, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said.

** The antitrust regulator reviewing Telefonica Brasil SA’s takeover of Vivendi SA’s Brazilian broadband unit told journalists on Wednesday that he would meet with the companies’ lawyers on Thursday to discuss the deal.

** The acquisition of a stake in Danske Bank by the family behind the A.P. Moller-Maersk conglomerate will likely bar any takeover attempts of Denmark’s largest bank, as had been previously rumoured.

** Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile phone operator by users, is raising as much as $415 million through the sale of shares in its mobile tower unit Bharti Infratel , two sources directly involved in the process told Reuters.

** Global miner Rio Tinto Ltd will not be taken over by rival Glencore Plc because there is no value in it for shareholders and regulators will never let it happen, Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh said.

** SHV Holdings said it has received approval from Ukrainian regulators for its 3.18 billion euro ($3.61 billion) takeover of Dutch animal and fish feed maker Nutreco NV, removing the last major hurdle to the acquisition.

** Italy’s Agnelli family, which controls Cushman & Wakefield Inc, is putting the world’s third-largest real estate company up for sale, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter. The sale could fetch as much as $2 billion, the report said.

** Italian tower operator EI Towers SpA plans to offer 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for domestic rival Rai Way SpA in a cash and paper deal that will create a leading player in the television and radio mast sector.

** Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Malaysia’s largest power group, said it has raised the takeover price for Integrax Bhd by 18.2 percent to some 761 million ringgit ($211 million) after a leading shareholder of the port operator rejected its offer.

** The shuttered Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, again has a buyer - and again it’s Florida developer Glenn Straub, who was lured back by a discounted price of $82 million.

Builder Hoban Construction Co and a fund led by securities brokerage IBK Securities Co also said separately that they had entered letters of intent to buy 57.5 percent of construction firm Kumho Industrial Co Ltd, which had a market value of about 515 billion won ($469 million) on Wednesday.

** Oil producer Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd, battered by a slump in oil prices, said it was in talks with a number of parties about a possible sale of the company or some asset transactions.

** Hassad Food, the agricultural arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, said it was looking at possible purchases of Brazilian sugar and poultry assets as structural problems in those industries in the South American country created opportunities.

** German publisher Hubert Burda plans to exit its 30 percent stake in online pet supplies store Zooplus AG within the next two to three years, Burda’s digital chief told Reuters.